Photo : Sei Spo Press
Goaltenders battle
The Canmore Eagles found themselves in a netminding duel against the Okotoks Oilers on Tuesday (Nov. 15) at the Canmore Recreation Centre.
In the Alberta Junior Hockey League clash, Canmore’s Andreai Proctor-Ramirez stopped 31 of 32 shots while Okotoks’ Alexander Scheiwiller stopped all 27 shots faced and the visitors slipped out of town with a 2-0 victory.
The game also featured two penalty shots, a couple of denied goals, some questionable hits by Oilers that will certainly draw video reviews by the league office, plenty of fast-paced end-to-end action, and two goaltenders that proved unbeatable but for the final minute of the second period.
Vincent Scott looked poised to give Canmore the lead in the sixteenth minute of the second period but was hooked on his breakaway attempt. Awarded a penalty shot, the Eagles’ captain managed to get Swheiwiller to stretch out but his backhander went wide of the goal as he crossed right to the left in front of the goal.
The Oilers then opened the scoring at 19:09 of the period, as Connor Gourley scored a shorthanded goal. Gourlay, who had thought he had scored on two previous occasions earlier in the game only to have them ruled out by the officials, came off the players’ bench at the end of an Oilers’ penalty, as the visitors had been killing off a 5-on-3 situation, grabbed a breakaway pass and beat Proctor-Ramirez with a backhand shot.
At 11:16 of the third period, Oilers’ Jackson Rowland was awarded a penalty shot at 11:16 when he was hooked on a breakaway attempt. Proctor-Ramirez blocked the penalty shot with his right pad as Rowland tried to flip it glove side on the right-handed, catching netminder.
The Eagles would put on the pressure for the final eight minutes but couldn’t break past Scheiwiller, with Conyr Hellyer adding an empty net goal with 71 seconds remaining.
Canmore’s power play again came up empty despite eight more chances, including Oilers’ minors for hit-to-the-head and checking-from-behind, in this game. The Eagles have scored just one power-play goal on 33 chances over its last five game, all losses. Three of those losses have been by two or fewer goals. The Oilers were 0-for-3 on the power play.
Canmore is now 9-11-1-2 on the season and have dropped into sixth place in the South Division. The Eagles head out on the road this weekend with games in Blackfalds on Friday (Nov. 18), then it off to Okotoks for the third and final time this season on Saturday (Nov. 19). The Oilers still have two more games to play in Canmore, Dec. 30 and Jan. 11.